Is DSE Software the Solution to Legal Compliance?

The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations require employers to risk assess display screen equipment (DSE) and to train the people who use it in the health and safety aspects of its use.
Risk assessment and training options available to employers include:

• engaging external consultants
• training employees to carry out assessments and present training for users
• self assessment by the DSE users
• use of video training and handouts.

Assessment and training can prove a challenge to large office based organisations, which may have thousands of users to manage. Increasingly, they are turning to software solutions to help them.

Our analysis

System Concepts recently held an enjoyable evening seminar to share the results of our analysis of the DSE assessment software currently available on the market. We identified 11 software applications of which five took part in the analysis. During the evening, we discussed the challenges faced by big organisations in planning a large scale roll out and implementation of the software.All the software applications we identified:

• Trained and tested the users' knowledge
• Risk assessed the user (via self assessment)
• Provided a management/administrator database to help manage the risk assessment process.

We evaluated the software on the following criteria:

• Cost (initial purchase and maintenance)
• Level and cost of customisation available
• Compliance with legal training requirements
• Ease of use/ease of learning
• Appearance/attractiveness
• Interactivity
• Emphasis on personal health and safety responsibility
• Technical accuracy of advice given
• Accessibility
• Time to complete
• IT hosting options.

Our findings

We found that the purchase costs were generally very similar, however customisation costs varied between £495 and £1300 a day. The ease of use and attractiveness of the packages were all good to excellent. There were varying levels of interactivity and technical accuracy. There were also varying levels of compliance with the legal requirements for training, as only some of the packages included all of the required issues. The average completion time was between 20 to 35 minutes.

The practical implications

In practice, from working with organisations who use software applications, we have found that a high level of support is required. This is to plan the roll out of the software, cost the provision of specialist equipment, manage the database and follow up assessments for people who are suffering from discomfort.
Software applications can be a fantastic way of carrying out training and assessments for large numbers of people. It enables organisations to take the temperature of their musculoskeletal risks.

However, as with all risk assessments, there is a need to ensure that any actions resulting from them are completed and, while there is some emphasis on the user taking ownership of their issues, there are often things that the organisation has to do to help, such as provide specialist equipment or occupational health support.

Our conclusions

In conclusion, while software can help manage compliance, it is not the complete answer. There are inevitably some users that require follow up and input from a trained assessor to help resolve their issues and in some organisations this has been around 20-30% of users.

If you would like to find more about the analysis, how to carry out DSE assessments within your organisation, how to train assessors or DSE users or the implementation of DSE software applications, please contact Liz Skelton or email sales@system-concepts.com